WILD YOUR GARDEN

We, as indviduals, can make a difference by connecting with the natural world around us, and to help us get started in our own gardens we feature an extract from Wild Your Garden: Create a sanctuary for nature by The Butterfly Brothers.

A Cornfield Annual Meadow

Some of us still remember the sight of vast swathes of wheat fields coloured by the red, blue, and yellow of poppies, cornflowers, and corn marigold. These fields provided valuable nectar for pollinators up and down the country. Unfortunately, it is hard nowadays for any of these wonderful wildflowers to survive in arable areas, due to increasingly intensive farming methods used in agriculture today. You can counter this decline by creating your own cornfield annual meadow. The simplest way to create a colourful, nectar-rich meadow in a short space of time is by sowing a patch of cornfield annuals. These plants establish and grow very quickly, and in the course of their short life provide plenty of nectar for insects and seeds for birds.

Cornfield annual meadows are ideal if you have a troublesome patch of ground that receives a good amount of sunlight. Whether you’re faced with poor clay soil where herbaceous perennials struggle to grow or rich fertile loam where a perennial wildflower meadow is out of the question due to excessive soil fertility, cornfield annuals are the perfect solution.

WHAT TO SOW